Writing and photos by Carol Dixon, music with permission from Rev. Sheila Hamil and Carol Dixon.
The 2nd of February is the feast of Candlemas, and is when many churches have a service to bless the candles that will be used throughout the year in worship and celebrate Jesus as the light of the world. It is also seen as the start of a new season and our opening hymn speaks of God with us in all seasons.
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Prayer
God of light and love, warming February’s chill,
Tempering the winds, peppering the hard ground
With early shoots of green and hints of blossom,
We lift to you the cold bones of winter and hearts aflame with hope.
We praise you for the light that has arrived with Jesus,
Shining in the darkness, unquenchable and true.
We praise you for the hope of his presence
Guiding our feet and lighting our pathway,
Casting warming rays and glow of fulfilment.
We praise you for the discomfort of his searchlight beams,
Concealing nothing, truth telling, life changing.
Examine us and know us God.
Drive out the darkness, turn our hearts to you
And fill our souls with the song of salvation,
With the message of your love.
Holy God, we worship you. We sing your praise, now and forever. Amen.
– [from Spring ed by Ruth Burgess Iona books]
As in many churches in the UK, in Sweden (where my penfriend of over 60 years lives,) Candlemas is celebrated in the churches as a Candle Feast. This is family service with candle lighting ceremonies, and children bring their christening candles and light them in the service to remember their baptism. In the middle ages the households of the parish brought their dipped candles to get them blessed at the altar candles. Candlemas Day is also a celebration of church music in Church of Sweden and a special song is sung.
(apologies no words available)
Some people have the Christmas lights in their windows lit until Candlemas which is seen as the last day of the Christmas ecclesiastical period.
Special festivals for Candlemas in Europe include pancakes (France, parts of Belgium), singing for sweets or cakes (Luxembourg) and church processions on the Sunday nearest February 2nd (Sweden & parts of Swedish speaking Finland) (Candlemas in Swedish Traditions).
Another symbol of Candlemas is the snowdrop which is usually the first flower to defy the winter. In some countries in the northern hemisphere Candlemas is seen as opening the door to spring.
I loved Lily Lewin’s Freerange Friday about opening doors and today I want to think about opening doors in our lives. One way we can do be more open to God is by meditative listening to the Bible read aloud and today I invite you to read aloud the readings below from a few different translations and consider which one resonates most with you. Holman Hunt’s famous painting ‘Light of the world’ was inspired by this passage from Revelation 3:20, 22. Let’s listen for God’s word to us today in scripture and in song.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me…22The one whose heart is open let him listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying now to the churches. [The Passion Translation]
Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me…22If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” [Good News Bible]
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends… 22Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” [New Living Bible]
“Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you…22Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.” [The Message]
Behold I Stand and Knock (Sheila Hamil)
Jenneth Graser (another godspacelight writer) wrote a lovely book on coming to God in prayer called Unlocking the Secret Garden: 100 Days of Imaginative Prayer. She begins by saying ‘Imagine you are standing before the threshold of an intricately carved wooden door surrounded by hanging creepers, mosses and ferns. Take note of how you feel as you stand there – what can you hear or see around you as you turn the key and walk into a cathedral of trees, light and a carpet of small flowers. It is time to open the secret garden within your heart and spend time with Jesus.’
As you open doors in your own house, going in and out this week, think about the doors Jesus is opening for you. Ask Jesus to open new doors of creativity, hope, inspiration, joy, compassion for you as the season unfolds! Watch for new doors of opportunity and how they bring you closer to God and help you to bring others to Jesus.
Some years ago I had a dream at the turn of the year. I saw before me a door of frosted glass with distorted images on the other side and I was afraid to turn the handle and open the door and walk through. On waking I asked God to give me the vision to overcome my fear and walk boldly through into this new world and he gave me a hymn which you can read here.
Give us the Vision (Carol Dixon)
Prayer
Steadfast loving God, thank you for your everlasting love for us.
We seek to be bringers of your peace, your love
and forgiveness to our hurting world.
Help us to open the doors of our church
And the doors of our hearts to all people,
And invite them in, no matter who they are.
Give us courage to step out of our comfort zones
And welcome those who may be different from ourselves.
Help us to open the doors of our lives to you.
Strengthen our faith so that we may rely on you each day
For all that we need to live, and learn to serve you
Following the example of Jesus.
Help us to protect our environment and share our resources
Using them to bring about your commonwealth of love.
We bring to you today people and situations that concern us,
Thinking especially of those we know and love (time of silent prayer)
Steadfast loving God, we thank you for always hearing our prayers
And giving us your peace to share with all we meet. Amen.
This final hymn is one I learned from my granny. I used to go to her house for tea on Sundays and after we had eaten our tea cakes toasted over the fire on a long fork we used to have a little service with a Bible reading, a prayer for God’s blessing on the coming week and a couple of old Wesleyan hymns. She sometimes invited me to lead worship (maybe that’s why I became a lay preacher!) and used to say ‘Never forget, Carol, to invite Jesus into your heart every day’.
Come into my heart Lord (Tune Hear the pennies dropping)
Come into my heart Lord, come to me today,
Come into my heart Lord and forever stay,
Come into my heart Lord I invite you in
Fill me full of love and take away my sin.
Come into our lives Lord, come to us today
Come into our lives Lord, and forever stay,
Help us all to follow in your footsteps lord
Love and care for others, share with them your word.
Come into our world Lord, come and make it new.
Come into your world Lord, may all follow you,
Loving, serving, giving, bringing hope to all,
Living in your kingdom, answering your call.
- (Author unknown based on hymn learned from my granny)
Blessing (from Psalm 121)
May the Lord watch over our coming in and going out from this day forth and forevermore.
And may the peace of God fill our lives today and every day.
Amen.
Did you know that alongside Christine Sine’s book The Gift of Wonder, we have many resources available to you? The free downloadable bonus packet or beautiful prayer cards featuring prayers from the book, for example – something to hold and behold! Or perhaps you’d like to journey through the book alongside a retreat – we have that too! You can check it all out in our shop!
Happy St. Brigid’s Day! Her feast day is February 1 but it can rightly be celebrated the entire first week of February. This year I am feeling Brigid’s energy circulating throughout our world. Yes, she is calling us to the hope of the coming season of spring in the northern hemisphere. But if you listen a little more deeply, you can hear her proclaiming the Celtic Christian understanding that God is in everything and everyone. And with that call comes her invitation to pattern our lives after the witness of Jesus of Nazareth.
St. Brigid, 473-524 (approximate dates) was born in Ireland. She was the daughter of a druid poet and a Christian slave servant. Remembered as a fine monastic leader, her monastery was built in Kildare. It soon became a double monastery as she presided over both men and women. The monastery was famous for their generous hospitality and their compassionate care for the sick, the poor and the oppressed. Brigid is also remembered as a healer and one who offered spiritual guidance to others and promoted the ministry of soul friendship. She was also a peacemaker. She intervened in disputes between rival clans, bringing reconciliation. St. Brigid is depicted in an icon in the parish church in Kildare with her foot on a sword.
My feature photo is one that I took in the garden well of St. Brigid, Kildare. The statue depicts her holding a lit torch of fire in front of water that flows from her well. Thus, St. Brigid is revered as a keeper of sacred water and sacred fire. Hundreds of wells bearing her name can still be found in Ireland, Scotland and England.
As a keeper of fire, she and her nuns were guardians of an eternal flame which they kept burning within their monastery. It is said that even after St. Brigid’s death they kept the flame alive for a thousand years until it was extinguished when all monasteries were shut down in the sixteenth century. And yet that flame has been rekindled and the light that inspired Brigid is burning brightly!
I can testify that Brigid’s spirit is truly alive today. In 2016 I travelled to Kildare and visited her cathedral and garden well. Both made a deep impression. What was surprising was encountering her likeness in many of the village shops. I saw paintings and mosaics bearing her image. Her cross was seen in several of the businesses in town. A pub offered a beer called, “Brigid’s Brew.” The town seemed to have embraced Brigid as their town saint. Her presence has continued to grow in Kildare.
Recently I visited Kildare virtually. My visit turned out to be a pilgrimage at the website of Solas Bhríde which is a Christian Spirituality Centre of the Brigidine Sisters.
The story of Solas Bhríde began in 1992 when two Brigidine Sisters moved to Kildare with the intent to share the legacy and spirit of Brigid with the world, in and through the town of Kildare. In 1993 the eternal flame of Brigid (mentioned above) was re-lit in the center of the town and a spark from that fire was carried from the town back to the home where the two Sisters lived. Since that time, the Brigidine Order has built an impressive spirituality center which houses educational, artistic, literary and spiritual programs about St. Brigid and of course the eternal flame.
Each year, Solas Bhríde and the town of Kildare celebrate the Festival of St. Brigid. This year the festival will last an entire week, beginning on the eve of her feast day, and running from January 31 through February 7. There are many events, ranging from educational lectures, performing and visual arts presentations, a candlelight pilgrimage, a guided labyrinth walk, a circle dancing, worship, presentations on social justices, ecumenical worship and meditation. And there is more! Here is the link to see the marvelous things this year’s festival has to offer.
None of this would have been possible without the collaboration between the Centre and the town. The festival and other activities throughout the year are sponsored by the City Council, other civic groups and an important non-profit group devoted to promoting peace and social justice. I find this to be amazing and inspiring! It is an actual collaboration between a town and a religious group bent on being a light to and in the world. The town and Solas Bhríde are embodying the Centre’s stated mission: “To share the Christian Celtic tradition which is a spirituality nourished by ritual, tradition, contemplation, experience and story.”
As I perused the pages detailing the festival, I found one way in which I can participate in the festival– and so can you!
The event that I will be participating in is a meditation from the Solas Bhríde team described as “looking towards the light and renewed hope this Springtime.” It will be offered at the Centre and is an in-person as well as an online event. The date is February 6 at 7:30 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. (GMT). If you would like to register, write the Centre at info@solasbhirde.ie. I have done so and have received my Zoom Link and look forward to being there. I hope you will join me.
Finally, here is one of my favorite stories about St. Brigid. She approached the local king of the region of Kildare to ask for land on the plain of Curragh so that she could build her monastery. He grudgingly told her she could have as much of the area as her cloak would cover. Brigid laid out her mantle on the ground, and the king watched in horror as it began to spread rapidly over the plains for miles and miles. It had almost covered the whole country by the time he begged her to stop. In Kindling the Celtic Spirit, Mara Freeman says, “Perhaps this story holds the memory of the time when all of Ireland was held within the fold of Brigid.”
Indeed. It seems to me that the mantle of Brigid is continuing to spread across the world. Solas Bhríde has received visitors from almost every country, including the Dalai Lama who visited there once and can be seen on the website holding a Brigid’s Cross with his characteristic smile!
I also believe that Brigid’s mantle is growing in ways that transcend geography. In Ireland, on February 6, 2023, the country will hold its first national public holiday, specifically in the name of St. Brigid. Wow!
Many stories about the life of St. Brigid demonstrate that everything she put in her hand seemed to increase. A medieval Irish hymn to Brigid, concludes, “Now in heaven she intercedes for us, sending upon us the gentle dew of God’s grace.”
I have no doubt that Brigid’s mantle has the power of the Holy Spirit to embrace and transform our world. Apparently, all she needs is just a little help from the rest of us.
Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening
Are you yearning to Dig Deeper? Perhaps you are looking for refreshment in your contemplative practices or for creativity in prayer. Christine Sine’s latest book is packed full of contemplative wisdom and inspiration for creating your own meditative focus. Click for more details!
Dear Friends,
Wow – it’s the end of January. Here in Seattle the days are lengthening and I am starting to plant seeds. Spring may not be in the air but it is certainly in my mind. So is Lent and Easter. Ash Wednesday is coming fast. Lent begins February 22nd. As well as that Black History Month (February) is almost on us, followed in March by Women’s history month. This is a busy season of celebrations and commemorations – Brigid of Ireland, Candlemas and Imbolc are rapidly approaching. For those that are unfamiliar with it, Imbolc is a well known Celtic tradition stemming from Neolithic Ireland and Scotland. It celebrates the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Imbolc and Candlemas February 2nd are a celebration of light and the first spark of spring.
Over the weekend I had fun creating an array of St. Brigid crosses as preparation for candlemas and St Brigid’s feast day which I talk about in my Mediation Monday: Imbolc, St Brigid and Candlemas. All the instructions you need for this simple craft are in the post, as is information on the celebrations of February 1st and 2nd.
For Orthodox Christians next Sunday is also the beginning of Triodion, which shares its name with the liturgical book containing the hymns and services for the period from now until Holy Saturday. It begins with the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee and moves through progressive Sundays highlighting the story of the Prodigal Son, Last Judgement and forgiveness. For more information check out Ascetic Life of Motherhood. I love the suggestion that we need to take the weeks before Lent to prepare our hearts and minds for the season. It is such an important time in the celebration of our faith and we need to give it our full attention now.
What are you planning to do for Lent? On Godspacelight we have updated our resource lists, or you might like to start by checking out this list of Lenten prayers posted over the years. You might also like to revisit our last year’s Lenten retreat Finding Beauty in the Ashes of Lent. This retreat and the practices we suggested impacted me so much that they will form the foundations for my practices this year too. You might like to check out our Lenten devotionals and free downloads in the Godspacelight store as well. Also save the date for this year’s Lenten retreat – Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week. This will be a quiet, contemplative retreat, though there will be time for creativity as well. The retreat will be on Saturday, March 25th.
Getting ready for Black History month is much harder for me than the preparation for Lent. The recent horrific death of Tyre Nichols and the many injustices that black people still face on a daily basis here in the U.S. overwhelms me. My heart aches constantly for all people of color in this country as well as for the many around the world who face injustice because of their color or ethnicity. Our resource list on Racial Reconciliation, though fairly comprehensive, still needs updating so if you have suggestions please let me know. My go to people for resources on racial reconciliation are Lisa Sharon Harper and Brenda Salter McNeill, two amazing women of color who help keep me informed and struggling with these issues.
I am also extremely concerned about the impact of climate change on our world. The recent deluge in Auckland, NZ is but one of many that has inundated our planet in the last few weeks. We pray for all who have suffered from these horrendous floods. It challenges me to consider how else I might need to change my lifestyle to reduce my impact on the earth. You might like to meditate on this garden liturgy as you too consider what you could do.
Many blessings on you as you navigate the week ahead.
Christine Sine
Lent is getting closer, and now is a great time to prepare for the upcoming season. Check out our Lent and Easter resource lists for prayers, creative ways to celebrate as a family, and more! More info on our resource page: Lent & Easter or find resources in our shop.
Pen and Paint Ponderings with Karen and Karen: Art by Karen Tamminga-Paton with reflection by Karen Wilk.
Before you read the reflection below, we invite you to take a moment to contemplate the artwork. Pause and reflect, and notice your own observations about the work and what thoughts it sparks in you. Then read the poem below.
I Hear With an Accent
I hear with an accent
But not so this noble tree
Call it a default
a challenge
My descent,
Upbringing or past–
You have one too.
Mine has an accent,
Sometimes sweet retreat
But bias
jaded?
Blinded
Embedded
Deadheaded.
Makes me mad,
Makes me sad
Why couldn’t I hear it?
Why did I believe it?
Community prejudice
In gilded frames
Frames too tight for wiggling
For outside the line colouring
For growth and different thinking–
For majesty and mystery linking
to a bigger God
The God who makes little cones into
Douglas Firs
Ancient, regal, divine
Holding many secrets
Including those
beyond our time
Old but ever new
Deep roots
Ever seeking
Ever nurturing, ever reaching
Branches out stretching
To the sky
Soft, fresh needles sprouting
Shading
Nourishing little creatures
Song birds singing
Animals scratching
Wise One without words preaching…
Are we listening, hearing?
Why can’t we be more like this grand tree?
Age-old, strong, evergreen, free
Ever changing, growing to be
More and new
Waving, engraving space for scribbles
In gold
And green, orange, red, blues
What might the future hold
How might our lives enfold
If we could only let go
And hear, learn, share multiple accents–
In startling rainbow hues
Like many branches growing each unique and true
All a gift that life and thriving represents
Beyond our limited thinking
not bounded by our clouded contexts.
If I were to listen to the Tree
and more importantly
To the God who made it to be
Our Teacher
What would I hear and be?
Would Creator’s accent set me free?
Creator’s accent
Glorious, expansive
Radiant, vivid, advansive
Brave, and bold, glance of
Young and old
On the left and on the right,
In the middle and in sight
Inviting me
Curiously,
Into the subtlety
Of frameless holy profundity
To scribble in infinity
To play and learn and dance abundantly,
To be still in Fir Tree’s company–
To change and grow
To know, not know and let go
As I am and will be, aglow
Underneath Creator’s Tree…
Speckled sunlight beams
Underground living water streams
Engraced
Embraced
With space
Beyond frames’ measure
All are free– Ancient new fir tree
Golden growing Godly treasure.
Spirituality of Gardening Online Course
~ Goodfellow
Explore the wonderful ways that God and God’s story are revealed through the rhythms of planting, growing, and harvesting. Spiritual insights, practical advice for organic backyard gardeners, and time for reflection will enrich and deepen faith–sign up for 180 days of access to work at your own pace and get ready for your gardening season.
by Christine Sine
This week holds some very important and fun celebrations from many traditions. As Kate Kennington Steer expressed in her Imbolc post a couple of years ago:
February 1st/2nd/3rd offers up multiple gifts to this season of grey: the Feast Day of St Brigid; Candlemas (the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Feast of the Holy Encounter); the Celtic festival of Imbolc; and lastly, the Saints day of Simeon and Anna. All four are intimately connected.
For those that are unfamiliar with it, Imbolc is a well known pagan Celtic tradition stemming from Neolithic Ireland and Scotland. It celebrates the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, considered by some to be the beginning of spring However I must confess that here in Seattle, though spring might be in my mind it is certainly not yet in the air. It was this tradition that gave rise to Groundhog Day in the U.S.
Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, commemorates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, based on the account in Luke 2:22–40. It also marks the conclusion of the Christmas–Epiphany season for some traditions. On Candlemas, many Christians (especially Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans and Methodists) also bring their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year. These blessed candles serve as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. I know of some Christians who even bring their light bulbs in to be blessed because they don’t use candles.
Imbolc and Candlemas February 2nd are both celebrations of light and the first spark of spring. I love how Christianity took existing celebrations like this and transformed them into celebrations of faith. Imbolc and Candlemas are interwoven with the celebration of St Brigid’s day which begins on the evening of February 1st and extends to the evening of February 2nd. For Imbolc bonfires were often lit and combined with a feast to St Brigid.
St Brigid is my favourite Celtic saint. She is also known as “Mary of the Gael”, was an abbess and is now patron saint of Ireland. She is founded the first Irish monastery in County Kildare, Ireland. Born in Dundalk in 450 AD, Brigid is accredited with first creating the unique cross which bears her name. This cross is normally hand created from rushes however occasionally straw was also used. Today, as these materials are rarely available people make crosses from yarn, pipe cleaners, strips of paper, or twine. I have seen some very creative crosses made by those who love to improvise.
The distinctive St. Brigid’s Cross designs is thought to keep evil, fire and hunger from the homes in which it is displayed. It is traditionally made on the eve of St Brigid’s day and hang it inside, over the door, so that St Brigid herself can come by and bless the cross and the houses in which she finds it. I love that in the delightful Irish film The Secret of Roan Inish, Fiona’s grandmother has a St Brigid’s cross on her wall.
An assortment of St Brigid’s crosses
There is also a delightful tale about its creation.
An old pagan Chieftain lay delirious on his deathbed in Kildare (some believe this was Brigid’s father) and his servants summoned Brigid in the hope that the saintly woman could calm his restless spirit. Brigid is said to have sat by his bed, consoling and calming him . She picked up rushes from the floor and wove them into the distinctive cross pattern. Whilst she wove them, she explained the meaning of the cross to the sick Chieftain and it is thought her calming words brought peace to his soul. He was so enamoured by her words that the old Chieftain requested he be baptized as a Christian just before his passing. I can understand why this would have calmed him and made him receptive to the gospel. I find that creating St Brigid crosses is a very rhythmic, soothing and meditative practice.
Making St Brigid’s cross with Goldie’s help
So lets give it a go.
This description is adapted from Kindling the Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman. A fun way to do this is to sit around a bonfire or fire pit while you create. Maybe even combine it with a feast of Celtic yummies. I don’t have any of the traditional Bride’s Bannock which is made either in a heavy iron skillet or a barbecue grill, but I will pull out the last of my Scottish shortbread to enjoy while we work.
What you will need:
3 dozen strands of rushes, yarn, twine, or straw. about 15 inches each.
String for tying ends
I used Raffia Paper Craft Ribbon for this video.
Additional crosses in the picture are made from Jute twine and knitting yarn. The fun thing about these is that you can make multicolored crosses if you like. The disadvantage is that the crosses are not as stiff when finished in fact the bright yarn cross is quite floppy. However as you can imagine this would be a very fun activity for kids.
- Soak the weaving materials in hot water until they are flexible.The raffia and yarn only need to be dunked in water and then removed and wrung out. Wrap in a damp cloth to keep them flexible while weaving.
- Imagine the face of a clock measuring the year of time. Place one straw vertically pointing toward 12 o’clock (north, winter) Fold.a second straw in half around the center of the first pointing towards 3 o’clock (east, spring) Fold the next straw in half and place it over the second straw pointing towards 6 o’clock (south, summer). Fold the next straw over straw 1 and 3, pointing towards 9 o’clock (west, autumn) Continue to work in a circular pattern of folded straws, progressing outwards, carefully weaving the straws side by side. Tighten the straws and reposition to fill in the gaps where needed.
- As you create your cross, meditate on the events of your life, past, and present woven together. Visualize what you want to see happen in the coming year and consider that each straw weaves a dream for your future.
- When at least 28 straws have been woven from the centre of the cross, tie off each arm, with about 3″ allowed for the arms. Trim ends evenly.
- Once the cross is dry hang it inside by the door
- Finish by reciting Brigid’s Feast
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taizé. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Thank you for praying with us!
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
“The Lord is My Light”, “Nada Te Durbe”, “God is Forgiveness”
Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Bring Your Peace”, “Litany of the Beatitudes”
Words and music by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
How is your season of Epiphany going? It’s dark and grey here in Nashville and I really need to be reminded that we are in the Season of Light! My good friend Kara K. Root has a wonderful reflection on Epiphany that can inspire us all to keep following the Star and seeking the LIGHT. I love how she brings the story to life! I highly recommend lighting a candle, grabbing a cup of tea or coffee and reflecting on the story and the wonder of God. If you have chosen a STAR WORD or a word for the year, you might get that out and spend some time considering how Jesus is already using that word or words in your life. Thanks so much Kara for sharing your beautiful words with us! Lilly
Mafa Visit of the Wisemen
When Epiphany dawns, the swaddling clothes have long been packed away in the attic of the peaceful little home, with room for a workshop that Joseph had rented them in Bethlehem, not too far from THE stable, actually, but near enough to town that he got a little business, enough to keep food on the table.
And to be honest, since the night when the shepherds and angels and everyone showed up in a wild blur of glory and honor, life has been kind of quiet. Mary and Joseph are far from the people and place they’d call home, no grandparents pitching in or aunties around offering advice through Jesus’ first fever, first tooth, first words, first steps. Leaning on their new community for connection and support. This was not how they imagined their family life would start- not even once they rearranged their imaginings to include God-incarnate crawling across the living room floor. Other than that one time Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Zechariah came to visit, commiserating over sleepless nights and nursing woes while the babies gurgled together on a blanket on the floor, it has mostly been just the three of them, mama, dada and Jesus, getting to know each other, gently becoming a family. Week to week, season to season, it’s an ordinary life.
Until the pagans show up and call their kid the king of the Jews.
Just when the story begins to lose its hard edges, when the nostalgia starts to descend and the lens begins to soften, when this baby has begun to feel like he is theirs, a reminder that he is not arrives in the form of sages from a far-off land, astrologers, scientist mystic-scholars who had been watching the skies for signs of God.
Surprising, perhaps, that those with no personal stake in the story generational anticipation of a Messiah, or claim to Yahweh’s promises to the people claimed by Yahweh, are the ones Yahweh involves next. Their arrival bursts the domestic bubble and exposes the light to all the world.
Epiphany, we call this day. Enlightenment. Aha! When the scene is illuminated what was familiar and known one second look completely other and utterly amazing the next, often because you suddenly see things with a broader perspective, or through the eyes of another.
The Christmas moment speaks God WITH US, Epiphany says GOD with us.
Attention! Sweet and cuddly though he is, folks, this isn’t your own private Messiah. He belongs to the whole earth! And all who live upon it belong to this little one who has settled himself contentedly here in your lap. You are recipients of this miracle as much as the next person, of course, but with just as little sense of what it all means as the rest of us, maybe even less, actually, than these astonishing strangers who have arrived on your doorstep seem to grasp.
After this great entourage of exotic travelers that have flooded this quiet, provincial town exchange greetings with his parents and bestow their gifts on the child (and there were certainly many of them, of course; what a silly modern assumption that there were just three, because one gift a piece), after the camels have been tended to and bedded down, the tents erected and the strangers washed up and unpacked, I love the crazy, cozy image of lamps lit, table set, Mary and Joseph and their surprise visitors all crowded around an unexpected potluck of fragrant dishes. Wall to wall humans, who look different and smell different and wear different clothing and speak different languages, and whose paths never, ever should have crossed on this planet in any conceivable way, breaking bread together, drinking wine together, sharing together what used to be mostly their own private secret that nobody else could relate to. Perhaps tomorrow they’ll invite the shepherds back over for breakfast.
These travelers, who have journeyed over desert and mountains, through seasons and struggles, countless freezing nights and endless scortching day, driven by a quest through unknown to arrive at the very source. And then, from the moment they lay eyes on the child, and Mary and Joseph lay eyes on them, the cosmic cat is out of the bag, so to speak.
The ego-maniacal King Herod is now chomping at the bit to stamp out this newly discovered threat to his power, and the news is out, things are not business as usual; God has really come, the world is topsy-turvy and strangers from a strange land are visiting that nice couple down the street, normal as you please. And it’s as though that one lone star now shatters into a trillion pieces, filling the sky with bright mess, scattering shards of radiance from one end of the globe to the other.
Of course they stayed a while, these unexpected guests. After all, it took many months, maybe years, to get there, they’re not just spending one night and leaving. So what was it like, adjusting to being next to the miracle for a while? Was it all the more miraculous for its ordinariness?
How did it feel to go from a distant star and a lifelong, theoretical quest for truth to a flesh and blood child who threw bawling toddler tantrums when he needed a nap, smeared hummus on the dog, and belly-laughed when daddy tickled him with his beard?
Because here’s a truth, miracles are almost never as sexy in person as they’re built up to be.
What was it like for Mary and the strangers from the East to fall into some daily patterns together, to have almost nothing humanly in common and yet get one another at a cellular level, sharing in a reality nobody else on earth yet sees, representing to each other by their presence that this really is real. God has really come; the world is being redeemed. This wonky little collection of folk are now church, if church means, and I think it does, the people gathered around Jesus wondering together who God is, and watching together what ,God is up to. But also, maybe, getting annoyed because they load the dishwasher wrong and forget to take their shoes off in the house?
And then after the long visit, and the dreamt warning not to go back to Herod, and the Magi bypassing Jerusalem to return home by another road – (Oh, wasn’t Herod steaming mad when then never swung back by the palace! Didn’t he pace on his balcony with his eyes on the horizon day after day, the realization slowing dawning after one week, two, three, that they were NOT coming back, and there wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it!) – Just after the hugs and blessings and goodbyes, the little family turns back inside, sighing, and expecting, perhaps, that life might return to normal: normal is redefined again.
Epiphany keeps going, you see. It doesn’t actually let you turn back.
By its very nature Epiphany’s path is almost always that of another road.
The new road is revealed when, three years after the one who told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, an angel messenger invades Joseph’s dreams, saying, Take the child and his mother and flea, right now, go to Egypt. Get up! NOW. And it’s your turn, Joseph, to be the strangers from a foreign land.
God-with-us, who was born in a stable is now transient and homeless, and you along with him, foreigners in a foreign land.
Some traditions hold that the little family settled in Egypt with the Ishmaelites, that they were received warmly by the way other side of the family tree, way back before Egypt became the land of captivity, the place from which Yahweh delivered the Israelites from slavery, back from the time when it was all the same trunk, the roots, the beginning. Father Abraham – father of us all, descendants as numerous as the stars.
It’s like baby God is on a sightseeing tour of the greatest hits.
I have been at this project for quite some time, you see…
So to the land of Egypt they went, (part of the Roman Empire at the time), seeking safety and welcome in the hospitality, hearts and homes of strangers, who are all part of the whole great story anyway, while back home among the children of Israel, the so-called “King of the Jews” Herod’s terrible wrath and fear ordered the deaths of all male children under two in an effort to stamp out the light of the world before the flame caught and spread.
Then it was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’
And I hate that part of the story and will never understand it, and don’t have a whole lot to say about it, except to notice both that God’s love doesn’t keep madness from happening but suffers it with us, coming as a homeless, transient peasant child, whose identity is revealed to nameless sheep-herders and pagan foreigners and NOT to the powers that be, no matter how loudly they rattle their sabers and fiercely they demand to be in on the secret, and also that as sweeping and awful as Herod’s act of terrible evil was, it seemed not to make a dent whatsoever in the God-with-us project. And while Herod himself is long dead and gone, love endures forever, profoundly and mightily, and every single day God-with-us is with us, transforming our shared life, bringing belonging and hope, redemptive kindness and healing care, and continuing to break through the darkness with light, every moment of every day.
After Herod’s death the little family finally journeys to Galilee, where they settle down at home amid grandparents and lifelong neighbors, to raise their first-grader in Nazareth, where he will run through the same streets, swim in the same streams, sit in the same school and participate in the same synagogue they did, in the tiny familiar world that had cradled and shaped them before their lives were ripped open by the light of the world.
How was little Jesus shaped by those early wanderings, I wonder?
What did he absorb from the Magi and the Egyptians, from the journeys and the dreams, and then from those who shaped his sense of home? How did Epiphany bend his path?
And what about those Magi? The journeyers, soul friends and miracle sharers who brought epiphany onto the scene as much as they received it themselves? What became of their lives after their encounter with the light of the world? How were they drawn into a lifetime of attunement to epiphany?
Epiphany keeps going, friends. The light of the world shimmers in our very own lives. And nobody gets to own this story – this story holds us all. It can’t be domesticated. What God is doing is always bigger, always more, always beyond us, and also right here next to us, in the minutia of our very ordinary lives. It pierces the darkness, the horrors, the loneliness, the wandering. It shares the awkward and unknown, the familiar and the comforting, the strange and the new, the death and the life, drawing us out into worlds we can’t imagine, bringing us home by roads we can’t foresee.
Today we get star words. They are not magic. But they are a chance to lift our heads and look beyond ourselves with hearts open to however Christ might encounter us, attentive to wherever God might lead us this year. God is with us, transforming the world.
So, arise, shine, beloved, your light has come.
Happy Epiphany.
Kara K Root a writer, spiritual director, workshop leader, and the Pastor of Lake
Nokomis Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN, a Christian community that shapes
its life around worship, hospitality and Sabbath rest. Kara’s new book, The Deepest
Belonging: A Story of Discovering How God Meets Us. Copyright 2021, Fortress
Press. Kara Blogs at In the HereandNow
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH...Flight into Egypt by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1907 oil on canvas. Painting found at the Cincinnati Art Museum
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